Can't find what you're looking for? Why not try a general search of OVCsupport.net for OVC?

Kate is writing to us from the International AIDS Conference in Vienna. Join in the conversation!

Conference Update: The Symposium Family Support First: Working Together to Achieve Universal Support and Access to Treatment

Before the start of the International AIDS Conference a group of over 450 academics, policy makers, researchers, implementing agencies, activists, and community representatives met in Vienna to discuss the importance of families in the HIV response.

The Symposium  Family Support First: Working Together to Achieve Universal Support and Access to Treatment was organised by the Theresa Group and Coalition for Children Affected by HIV and AIDS. This event has taken place every 2 years since the Toronto 2006 International AIDS conference in response to the lack of sessions at the IAC focussed on children and their families. A group of concerned individuals who had attended the Bangkok  conference in 2004 and witnessed the decorative use of young children at the opening ceremony, but a total absence of children’s issues in the main conference , decided something needed to change.

The symposium event has grown over the last 6 years to bring together more and more of the key people in the sector, discussing the care, support and protection of children affected by HIV and AIDS. This year the event welcomed the likes of Michel Sidibe UNAIDS, Jimmy Kolker UNICEF, messages from Gracha Machel and a closing speech from Elizabeth Mataka, Special Envoy for AIDS in Africa. Despite this growing international profile for the event you might be surprised to hear that over the 6 years there has still been no significant increase in the inclusion of the issues of children and families into the main conference.

 Analysis done by CCABA over the last 6 years calculated that you were 6x more likely to have an abstract accepted for the conference if you did not use the word’ children’ and 11x more likely to be accepted  if you used the word ‘Bill’ as in Clinton or Gates. Children and their families are critical to the HIV and AIDS response. We cannot eliminate pediatric AIDS without families, we cannot achieve universal access without a focus on families, when is the world going to wake up to this reality and give children and families their rightful place on the agenda?

Kendra is emailing us updates from the International AIDS Conference in Vienna. Join the conversation!

Entry #3:  Understanding social networks in concentrated epidemics

In high prevalence, general epidemics social networks are significant in sustaining care and support for families affected by HIV.  However, in concentrated epidemics, programs are challenged to consider the reach of social networks and the changing dynamics of “family” for socially marginalized groups (MSM, FSW, IDUs). Research indicates that in such settings, the stigma associated with marginalized groups often means that their family changes from the nuclear conception of the term. These groups are socially networked and these networks provide some forms of support.

 

Kendra is emailing us updates from the International AIDS Conference in Vienna. Join in the conversation!

Entry #2:  Grandparents – correcting a common misconception

A serious misconception on grandparent headed households is that they are all elderly or consist of frail caregivers unable to provide adequate support for the children under their care.  Recent evidence indicated that some grandparents are young (60 or less) and quite able and even those who are not young are finding ways through social networks to provide for the children under their care. The existence of social networks and the ability to engage reciprocally in these networks are key to sustaining support for these households.

 

Kendra is emailing us updates from the International AIDS Conference in Vienna. Join in the conversation! 

Entry #1: Children as carers

In the recent past, research conducted on children affected by HIV/AIDS indicated that the phenomenon of child headed households was not as prevalent as we thought. However, recent evidence indicates that we were looking at the issue in the wrong way. It is not who is heading the household. Rather, it is who is assuming caregiving responsibilities within that household.

 

More and more the burden of care is shifting to children even in instances where there is an older caregiver in the household. However, that caregiver may be ill or too frail to adequately handle all the caregiving tasks. As a result, children are taking more responsibility for providing for the families (engaging in economic activity) and providing care for other members of the households including young children and older grandparents.  Child carers include a wide range of children beyond those who are heading households. It also includes children who are living with parents who have a chronic and debilitating illness; those living with and caring for increasingly frail grandparents, who may have formerly been caring for their adult child; and those heading households and caring for younger siblings.  The changing caregiving dynamics requires a paradigm shift from thinking only of child headed households as the target group for intervention. Rather, we should be looking more at the age and capacity (including a look at disability) of caregivers in these households.

The International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) will be taking place in Bali, Indonesia, 9-13 August 2009. After the jump, an overview of children and HIV sessions and events at the conference.

The weekly digest provides a snapshot of news and resources on orphans and other vulnerable children featured on other sites in the previous week but not on this site.

This week's digest is featuring new publications on OVC Program evaluations carried out in Africa, information about the launch of the Child Status Network, news about the reauthorisation bill to prevent child marriage by the US State Department and UNAIDS calls for virtual elimination of vertical transmission of HIV.

Twitter, a social networking site, is gaining popularity among nonprofit groups that wish to spread their message to a large group of people. After realizing that many nonprofit groups were not utilizing the service to promote their cause, Twitter users began using the tag #charitytuesday to help them reach more people.

This is beginning to bear results. Recently, through a tweet under the tag #charitytuesday, Crusaid's Walk for Life announced June the 7th as the date for Europe’s largest fundraising walk for HIV and AIDS.

RSS posts feed RSS blog comments feed